Sunday angels to Monday devils

Before I got baptized, I had always been a critic of the frequent church-goer; who on Sunday, in their Sunday best would praise the Lord with all their heart, and all their soul and all their might…then on Monday don the ski mask and rob you blind. And it was unfortunate for me that I knew so many of them. There were few people I met who I could say were truly spiritually in-tune and showed that both in and out of the office.

I remember countless sermons in church that taught one thing and I ended up doing the other the very next day; a sermon on taming the tongue…and the next day insulted my manager in all the international languages I had acquired.

Then I made the glorious change in my life and was baptized. I was a new person. I had a new outlook for life, I had new joy and peace within me and for the first time I had an overwhelming amount of hope. But I was still working in the same office that drove me up the wall. It didn’t take long, and it wasn’t too hard for me to quickly become a Sunday angel and the next day be a Monday Devil.

I remember countless sermons in church that taught one thing and I ended up doing the other the very next day; a sermon on taming the tongue…and the next day insulted my manager in all the international languages I had acquired. A sermon on patience, and the next day wanting to chop off the head of a matatu tout for short changing me. One on being a Samaritan to those around me; helping them up…yet the next day tearing them down. There was a problem. There was a missing link.

Not only was I not applying everything I’d learned the day before where it mattered the most; I was breaking one of my most sacred vows…putting God first and having Him guide me wherever I go. I could be wrong (though I highly doubt it) but I don’t think God intended me to be a razor-sharp clawed, fire breathing vixen in the office.

But many people claim and say that God does not belong in the office (unless your office is some form of ministry). That religion and politics do not and should not mix; and that “me” as the politician is totally different from “me” as the religious person. But where else can one practice the principals learned on that religious Sunday?

Finally, I did what every struggling Christian thinks last to do…I prayed. I asked how do I bring God into the office? How can I show, that something within me has changed…that God is fully with me and that I am a changed person?”

The answer did not come easily and the application of the same is harder still. It required of me to hold back when I wanted to go forward. Or stand firm when I wanted to flee. It meant me persevering when I wanted to quit; and letting go when I wanted to hold on. It took more of me than I thought it would but I gained all the more back. The peace that resonated within me from my decision was now spilling into the one place people said it should not go.

And that is when I knew…it’s not the preaching in the office; neither the countless bible verses exhibited your work space; nor the continuous exclamation that “I am a Christian woman” that makes the difference. It is God, living within you, guiding, transforming and emancipating you, that makes the difference wherever you go.